In my blog resolutions I made at the beginning of the year, I promised myself I’d do a better job at bringing more outside contributions to the blog, from additional regular writers, to putting up custom playlists from other blogs and tastemakers who I think have a great ear for new music. In the list of sites I check daily, I regularly read the words of Dan Frazier of Free Bike Valet, “a beach city music blog that focuses on capturing the coastal lifestyle, sand romanticism, brisk fog, desert dust, and gold rush nostalgia that characterizes the West Coast”. Dan is an entertainment music journalist who has written for Entertainment Weekly, SPIN, Nylon, Paste and many other publications.

When I e-mailed Dan out of the blue yesterday, he broke a world record for sending me back a playlist, taking just 24 minutes to put this great mix together. It’s a great sampling of the bands he normally features on his site, which only covers artists/bands from California. Some songs we’ve featured, but a bunch of new bands to check out…. hit play on the playlist below (and start checking Free Bike Valetdaily too).

Stay tuned for more of these posts as I continue to reach out to other blogs I follow online.